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A 


DISCOURSE, 


» 

PJiEAGIIED BEFORE THE SYNOD OF NORTHERN INDIANA AT THE 
OPENING OF ITS SESSIONS, AT 




INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 10, 1861. 


\'\ 


JBLItriHED BY RKQUiiliSX OF XHE SYN^OD. 




KY 

JOHN M. LOWRIE, D. D. 




FORT W.VYNK. IXD. 


INDIANAPOLIS: 
INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL COMPANY, PRINTERS. 

1861. 



CECK^iSTz^nsr loyalty. 



A DIS COURSE, 

PREACHED BEFORE THE SYNOD OF NORTHERN INDIANA AT THE 
OPENING OF ITS SESSIONS, AT 



INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 10, 1861. 



rXJBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE SYNOD. 



BY 

JOHN M. LOWRIE, B. D 

FORT ■WAYNE, IND. 



INDIANAPOLIS: 
INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL COMPANY, PRINTERS, 

1861. 



7 



" The following resolution was unanimously adopted : 
Resolved^ That the thanks of this Synod be tendered to Rev. Dr. 
Lowrie for his very able disccurse on Christian Loyalty, and he be 
requested to furnish a copy for publication." 
A true extract from the Minutes. 

E. W. WRIGHT, Staled Clerh. 



Id ifvp/ 



7 



CHEISTIAN LOYALTY. 



Titus, 3; 1. 

" Put them in mixd to be subject to principalities and powers, 
to obey magistrates." 

These words are addressed by an aged minister of the 
gospel to a younger. And we, who acknowledge the inspira- 
tion of the great Apostle to the Gentiles, must admit that 
ministers of the church of Christ, in all ages, have here, not 
only words of truth as to the soundness of the doctrine incul- 
cated, and words appropriate to the ministerial oflBce, as to 
the exhortation given, but also words authoritative, as to the 
righteous discharge of ministerial duty. That is to say, the 
Holy Ghost by the mouth of Paul the aged, commands the 
ministers of Christ to put their hearers in mind of the duty 
they owe the civil government under which they are. No 
man that ever lived had a higher estimate of the sacred 
character of the gospel ministry than the apostle Paul. If 
ever a man had a passion for souls, if ever a man thought all 
other teachings tame in comparison wdth the spiritual instruc- 
tions which lead men to the cross, if ever a minister knew 
truly, the spiritual functions of the church, and the ap- 
propriate duties of the ministry ; if, in the discharge of 
any particular duty, any one minister may be a just exam- 
ple to others ; — all these things we may grant to Paul. 
And here one, who determined to know nothing amons: men 
but Jesus Christ and him crucified, in addressing a younger 
minister touching ministerial duties, bids him remind the peo- 
ple of their civil obligations. 



Considering, then, the topic chosen by the Apostle, and the 
person to whom he addressed it, we may plead Paul as a pre- 
cedent upon the present occasion. Providentially called, in 
the regular discharge of an official duty, to address you, fath- 
ers and brethren of this venerable Synod, I may rightly choose 
the theme the Apostle furnishes. It is the duty of the chris- 
tian ministry to remind their hearers that they are, not only 
christians, but citizens and patriots ; that the scriptures clear- 
ly and often enjoin the careful discharge of civil obligations.; 
and that obedience to lawful rulers is obedience to God him- 
self; and it is the duty of ministers to remind each other that 
these claims of the civil government are to be laid before the 
people. I exhort you, my brethren in the ministry, as Paul 
exhorted Titus, "Put the people in mind to be subject to 
principalities and powers, to obey magistrates." 

Nor is it only by Paul's direct example that we may indi- 
cate the propriety of this topic in the opening discourse of 
the Synod. If any duty, proper for a christian, may be prop- 
erly considered by christian ministers and elders ; if any 
teachings proper for the people, are proper for our ecclesiastic- 
al gatherings ; if duties binding on individuals, bind no less 
those who bear the responsibilities of office in the church, 
timely discussions especially become this service. The times 
in which we live are indeed times of unparalleled agitation 
and excitement. Men are swayed by their aroused passions and 
prejudice rather than by the calm voice of reason and truth; 
and ministers of the gospel and ecclesiastical assemblies are 
liable to hasty words and rash judgments. These seem, in 
the view of some, scarcely times to settle the proper grounds 
of duty, as the Church of Christ stand related to civil socie- 
ty. And yet such is the reasoning of shallow and timid 
minds. These are the very times in which to discuss earnest- 
ly just such questions. " A word spoken in the season how 
good it is." "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures 
of silver." The opportune time to rebuke any sin, is when 
the sin abounds ; to sustain any truth, is when it suffers denial ; 
to enforce any duty, is when that duty is trampled under foot ; 



when the enemy comes in like a flood, it is the Spirit of the 
Lord who prompts and bids us lift up a standard against him ; 
and when, not only wrong doctrines are proclaimed, but when 
the attempt is made with a high hand to carry them into prac- 
tical execution, he is a cowardly soldier who stands back from 
the fight because the storm of battle rages high. Let us in- 
deed guard against the warping influence of exciting times ; 
but these are the very times for instructing men upon these 
questions which pertain to our civil duties. Now men will 
hear, and think too, as ordinarily they do not ; when awaken- 
ed interest has broken up the fallow-ground of careless hearts, 
wise men should sow diligently the seeds of righteous prin- 
ciples which shall sink through the sods, to lie there perhaps 
through a stormy and inclement season, but to shoot up in the 
spring and harvest that rapidly follow. In every other mat- 
ter the Church of God judges that Providence bids her observe 
the times ; suit her instructions to the changing necessities 
of the people ; stand boldly up to a crisis, especially when it 
comes through none of their own seeking; and look for the Di- 
vine blessing only in faithfully withstanding every evil. Why 
should we not judge that the duty of the church to the gov- 
ernment under which they are, should be specially discussed 
when the discussion is specially needed ? 

There can be no controversy among us touching the ques- 
tion of subjection to the legitimate civil authorities of the 
land. Happily, the teachings of the sacred volume are ex- 
plicit upon this important matter. They declare to us that 
civil government is an ordinance of Divine appointment ; that 
civil rulers act by Divine authority ; and that citizens should 
be subject, "not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake." 
So then, rebellion, treason, or disloyalty, is not only a crime 
against the civil government, but an ofi'ence against the laws 
of God, and should expose the guilty party to precisely the 
same kind of censure, proportioned to the flagrancy of the 
offence, what would follow any other breach of human and 
divine laws. The disciphne exercised by the Church of Christ 
towards the delinquencies of men may be of various forms ; 



6 

it may be exercised towards many different offences ; but the 
common basis of all is the teaching of God's holy word ; and 
every form of church instruction and church authority — one 
as truly as another — must be according to this rule. All are 
not of equal influence and importance, but all stand on the 
same basis. If a minister of God rebukes or reproves ; if a 
church judicatory judicially condemns, or authoritatively ex- 
pounds or declares, just so much power have they as they 
liave of truth ; taking cognizance of the same individuals and 
of the same crimes with the civil magistrate, they still exer- 
cise over these but spii'itual powers ; the civil authorities may 
punish a man for fraud or murder, and this interferes not with 
the distinct sentence of the Church for the same offence ; 
whatever be the offence, the Church can but treat it in its 
spiritual aspects ; but from this she is not to be deterred by 
the fact that any offence has also its entangling relations to 
earthly things. 

But agreeing upon the general duties of the christian 
patriot, there is now a conflict in this nation and in the church 
to which we belong, between those who a little while ago 
seemed firmly united in one sentiment of national loyalty. 
There are those among us, on the one hand, who yield our 
cordial support to the Government of this great nation in the 
exercise of governmental powers ; fully believing that these, 
so far as our forms are concerned, are constitutional ; and 
that so far as all our citizens and all the world are concerned, 
they are legitimate and wise and just. We recognize no such 
evils in the administration of this Government as would jus- 
tify the mildest civil war ; we claim for it a kindly and be- 
neficent and prosperous working, so far at least as our own 
citizens are concerned, far beyond any ever yet seen under 
human guidance ; and we aver that the American citizen who 
shrinks from the duty of entire loyalty at such a time as this, 
is recreant to the very highest duty of a citizen as enjoined 
in the word of God. 

On the other hand there are those who, granting the gen- 
eral basis of loyal duty as commanded in the Scriptures, do 



yet affirm that in the contest between the Northern and South- 
ern States of this Union, there is a conflict of loyal claims, 
and that to stand on either side of this contest is so consist- 
ent with christian character that the church of God may not 
venture to utter her voice upon the subject. It is alleged as 
a grave question for our consideration whether a citizen owes 
loyalty first to the Union, whose national existence alone has 
ever been recognized by other human Governments, or first 
to the particular State in which he dwells, and whose present 
impulses or apparent interests seem to clash with the biddings 
of the General Government. And although the General 
Assembly of our Church has taken ground upon this question, 
and as we believe only as such a body should ; and although 
those who protested against the action of the General Assem- 
bly, generally, if not unanimously, professed their own loy- 
alty to the National Government, and agreed that the South- 
ern disloyalty had no sufficient justification ; yet the position 
now held by many in our Southern churches, received from 
these protestants an unhappy appearance of plausibility, and 
even of authority, when the'statement is made that the Church 
of God is not competent to decide this question, which de- 
mands the investigation of the Church, and makes it appro- 
priate for the people of God to sustain the Assembly. For 
the stand taken was proper, and^the utterance both Joyal and 
timely. 

The one general statement which we affirm is, that the 
sphere of the. Church of Christ embraces all moral obligations 
of men ; and that the power of reproving any moral evil im- 
plies and includes necessarily the power to determine the na- 
ture of that evil and the fact of its existence. If the Church 
may undeniably reprove disloyalty as a sin against God, then 
may she also inquire wherein does disloyalty consist. No 
matter that her inquiries lead her by paths she is not wont to 
tread. If the law of God is written in Hebrew and Greek? 
the Church must study languages to become its interpreter : 
if the doctrinal heretic hides himself in the mazes of a misty 
and vain philosophy, the Church must study metaphysics to 



8 

expose its folly: if men trample upon the law of God and 
then run for shelter behind the ramparts of political opinions? 
the Church may attack and storm their fortress, justified by 
the object she has in view, so long as she uses legitimate 
means to reach it. The chief aim of a physician is to heal 
diseases. But this presupposes that he must be able to dis- 
tinguish diseases, their reality, nature and extent, and that he 
may go where the patient is to be found, though he should 
enter disreputable abodes and prescribe to wicked persons. 
So they who maintain the authority of that law which the 
Apostle tells us " was made for the lawless and the disloyal,"* 
(see the original word, 1 Tim. 1:9,) are competent to follow where 
the law goes, to judge the wide wanderings of human trans- 
gression. If any man ventures to raise his hand against a law- 
ful authority, the Church is expressly justified in condemning 
that very thing: the excuses he makes she is competent to 
weigh : and we may as well give up church authority altogether 
as allow that any plea of innocence or justification is a bar to 
jurisdiction. Admit that disloyalty is a crime and its investi- 
gation is a right. If even, |as is alleged, there is a conflict 
between the State and the National Authorities, the Church 
of God does not depart from her sphere when she speaks of 
such things : and even upon the principles of these protest- 
ants she is abundantly justified in speaking now, because this 
is not the true state of the present case. 

"We do not claim, let it be distinctly understood, that the 
Church of God is bound always to utter her voice when ques- 
tions of loyalty are discussed in any community. The revo- 
lutions which sometimes take place in civil government usually 
proceed through so many changes : the "long train of abuses" 
tending towards despotism may gather its strength so slowly, 
that the very difficulty of deciding where allegiance is extin- 
guished and resistance may begin, may be thought a valid 
reason why wise men and a wise Church should go forward 
only at the manifest biddings of Providence. Every case of 

* dvu'TroTttXTOJf , " Coatumaces, refractarios, contemptores nsagistratuum ac 
Ipgum eorumque per quos publica administrantur." — Rosenmcller. 



9 

duty that depends upon the changes of time and circiimstan- 
ces, involves its own peculiar perplexities ; and just Avhere 
her individual members may hesitate as to the path of duty, 
move slowly and wait for light, may the Church of God do 
likewise. Or if beyond this, we allow more serious and care- 
ful deliberation before her voice is uttered, we still affirm that 
the principles upon which the christian duty of any person 
is decided, are the same principles upon which the Church 
may decide her action. So long as the Church confines her 
decisions to questions of moral duty, she is within her proper 
sphere; and this none the less because legal rights or politi- 
cal principles may be involved in the same. If two of her 
members claim each a legal right to a disputed estate, she is 
no judge or divider between them; and yet she may inquire 
into the facts, and issue her reproofs upon the charge that 
the pretensions of one are forged or dishonest. 

The propriety of the action of the General Assembly in 
declaring the obligations of our national loyalty may be af- 
firmed in view of the great moral importance of the questions 
at issue. 

In the First place, the doctrine of Secession is itself a direct 
breach of the Covenant made in the United States Constitu- 
tution and adopted by the people of the entire Union. This 
cannot be evaded by saying that the question turns upon the 
construction of a political matter; unless the Church is con- 
sistently to refuse her reproofs of crime because of the mere 
difficulty of proving it. There is no difficulty in understand- 
ing the breach of Covenant. Its VI article expressly makes 
the United States Constitution the supreme law of the land, 
so binds the judges in every State, and this expressly, " any- 
thing in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary 
notwithstanding." We need not discuss now any reasons 
which might justify the people of the United States in throw- 
ing off the United States Constitution. We merely say that 
having adopted that Constitution, there is no longer any room 
for the question whether the State or the Nation is supreme : 
and the man who makes his State allegiance his reason for 

2 



10 

disloyalty to the Nation is, upon the very face of the docu- 
ment, a covenant breaker. 

Secondly, Secession involves abundant perjury. Among 
the thousands of oflfice-holders in the Southern States, whether 
for State or Federal offices, every man swore solemnly to sup- 
port the United States Constitution ; among the thousands of 
naturalized citizens, every man took an oath, in which not a 
word is said about State authority, but where allegiance to 
the United States is solemnly promised, and allegiance to ev- 
ery other sovereign power solemnly renounced. There was no 
room for these men to raise the question of State or national 
supremacy, and how many of them are this day perjured. 

Thirdly. The crime of disloyalty itself, is the very highest a 
citizen can commit in that capacity; and is of sufficient import- 
ance to demand that Church Assemblies should take cognizance 
of it, and decide when it has been committed, even though this 
should seem to demand the investigation of political princi- 
ples. If one single church member had been guilty of these 
things — of the breach of covenant, of the perjury, of the trea- 
son involved in secession, he would have found no relief from 
the censure of the Church, on the plea that it was but a po- 
litical offence. Yet the principles involved are the same, and 
are only the more dangerous and deserving of pointed rebuke, 
when thousands have used them to turn the nation upside 
down. If we admit that the Church of God is the just inter- 
preter of the moral law, then we must demand in her an ac- 
quaintance with the facts and principles which enable her to 
make a just interpretation. We do not excuse her from the 
discharge of her duty upon the plea that it is difficult or del- 
icate : we do not allow that the liability of making an unwise 
or unjust decision should lead the Church to shrink from ma- 
king any decision at all; we see no reason why a righteous 
interpretation of the moral law may not furnish a term of 
christian communion with as little objection as the interpreta- 
tion of even minor matters of doctrine, which we so frequently 
make. We believe that scarcely any matter of interpretation 
touching the law of God, is of greater importance to the well- 



11 

being of society, of individuals, and of the Church itself, than 
that which regards the duties Avhich citizens owe to a lawful 
government. We are willing that the largest exercise of pru- 
dence and wisdom should be shown by the Church in discus- 
sing and deciding upon questions that are related to the pol- 
itics of the land; but so far as these things have any moral 
bearing, the Church of God should understand them, and bear 
her timely testimony respecting them. Let the mischievous 
dogma, "religion has nothing to do with politics," became the 
settled faith of this land: let the Churches endorse the error, 
and the ruin of the nation is sealed. Carry out the principle 
consistently, and we will observe no more fast days for national 
sins; offer no more prayers for national rulers, and urge no 
righteous principles in the conducting of our elections. But 
the Church has to do with morals, even in polities ; and if she 
may rebuke any sin, she is competent to ask, What is the na- 
ture of this sin? and in whom does it exist? And surely if 
any sin against authorities may ever be rebuked, the very 
highest crime of which a citizen is capable, must not stand 
forth as the exception. Rebellion is a proper object for the 
censures of the Church; it is within the sphere of the Church 
to ascertain whether this sin is or is not committed within her 
borders ; and while we acknowledge the right of revolution on 
the part of an oppressed people to be justified by the circum- 
stances which bring it into being, w'e aver that the pulpits of 
this land, and the ecclesiastical Assemblies of this land should 
teach the people that there is the widest possible difference 
betw^een revolutions against despotism, and insurrections 
against constitutional law. 

For the General Assembly to exercise this power was also 
but to do as our ecclesiastical Assemblies have ever done in 
all our history. Even in times when the divine right of kings 
found acknowledgment far beyond the claims now conceded 
to civil rulers, the Church of Scotland had no hesitation in 
making her voice heard in civil affairs. And it ought to be 
acknowledged that when our venerable mother Synod supported 
the Continental Congress in the times of the Revolutionary 



12 

Wat", it was a step far in advance of the action of the late 
General Assembly. Without denying, even while in profes- 
sion supporting the authority of the King of Great Britain, 
the Presbyterian churches of this land were exhorted to sup- 
port and to pray for the Continental Congress, though it had 
taken up arms against the king. Surely a church that could 
gather the evidence and decide upon it, to bid the people 
break the bonds of allegiance, may lawfully teach their right- 
eous maintenance. To decide that a legitimate govern- 
ment has become oppressive; to urge citizens to give up 
their former loyalty; to come out boldly in favor of a 
new system of things, is certainly a far more difficult 
thing, than to maintain a long-existing and beneficent 
government. And the inferior judicatories of our Church 
have not hesitated to exercise the very right to speak 
on those subjects which the Assembly has claimed. This has 
Ibeen done in all sections of the land. The Synod of South 
Carolina sanctioned the secession movement in advance of the 
action of that State. Other Synods and Presbyteries in all 
the land have felt free to act on both sides of the question. 
Indeed those who chiefly oppose the Assembly's action, have 
yet declared that such action might properly be taken by the 
Presbyteries and Synods of the North ; and that if Presbyte- 
ries were all united, they might declare their sentiments as 
freely as they please. This, in our view, settles the full pro- 
priety of the Assembly's decision. When the question was 
discussed, and these things fairly admitted; when ministers 
claimed the right to contend for these principles in pubHc, by 
pulpit and press, no wonder the majority rapidly changed 
sides and declared that the Assembly could do so too. For 
surely principles like these depend neither upon place nor 
numbers : no Church Assembly has an authority to be denied 
to another. If a Presbytery or Synod may declare the citi- 
zen's duty to his country, no precept of the Bible, and no sol- 
id reasonings forbid the General Assembly to do the same. 

We should not forget, moreover, that this very question of 
loyalty is so clearly taught in the Scriptures, is of so pressing 



13 

importance, and comes before Christian people so frequently^ 
that it was already virtually settled all over the land by the 
members and Ministers of every Church. We could not ignore 
these principles. The Divine word says too much about gov- 
ernment, enjoins too clearly the duty of a citizen, and calls 
too explicitly for the constant offering of public and private 
prayer, to allow us to escape the responsibility of deciding 
where our fealty is due, on the plea that we are meddling 
with politics. Even those High Church Prelatists, who stand 
so much above the sphere of common mortals that they can- 
not stoop to touch a moral question, and who universally, as 
we believe, refused to decide this matter in their conventions, 
were yet compelled to decide it in their separate congrega- 
tions and in the worship of every Sabbath. In fact, every 
pulpit in the land decided this very question before the As- 
sembly met. If any minister formerly prayed for the U. S. 
Government, and now neglected it, this falling off from for- 
mer duty was a disloyal decision; any minister praying for 
different rulers decided the question. Why should a Church 
assembly stand back from that which necessarily must be done 
in the regular discharge of his duty by every minister in his 
pulpit, and indeed by every christian at the family altar? 
Especially, why should our Assembly, that had never before 
hesitated to express its loyalty, stop at the very juncture 
when such hesitation would have all the fatal effects of a dis- 
loyal decision? 

For it is our firm conviction, not only that a decision given 
when the times demand it, in the face of opposition, either 
temporizing or disloyal, is worth a thousand formal expres- 
sions of more peaceful times, but that the situation of thou- 
sands of Presbyterian.^ in the Southern States demanded this 
support to their loyalty from the supreme judicatory of the 
Church. Three classes of Presbyterians were in the South : 

First. — Those who were disloyal, and meant to be so, in 
spite of all expositions and expostulations on the part of their 
brethren; and these deserved the full force of our plainest 
rebukes; nor are their sincere convictions any better defence 



14 

for their treason, than the similar sincerity of thousands of 
Prelatists, Romanists, Baptists and Arminians, against whose 
departure from christian doctrine as we receive it, the Pres- 
byterian Church testifies. 

Secondly. — There are men in the South who thought that a 
position of neutrality, both in Church and State, was fitting 
in such a crisis ; and these may receive our pity or our scorn, 
according as we classify them in the wide extremes of weak- 
ness on the one hand, or secret disloyalty on the other. 

But thirdly. — The men of the South who are truly loyal to 
this Government, deserved and should have received the cor- 
dial support of the General Assembly in declaring the au- 
thority to which their allegiance, for conscience sake, was due. 

Nothing can be further, both from the words and sense of 
the Assembly's declarations, than to allege that loyal men are 
harshly and cruelly treated. They were supported, just as 
the deliverances of the Church ever support a conscientious 
man, by declaring the clear views of the Supreme Assembly 
upon a duty from which he is tempted to decline. It may 
be acknowledged that many of these men were surrounded by 
difficult and trying circumstances, and that even they might 
be more suspected and harassed because of the Assembly's 
action; but they were enjoined to support the Federal Gov- 
ernment only "so far as in them lay;" and even those of 
them who felt that the Assembly acted inexpediently would 
be disposed, just so far as they were truly loyal, to approve 
of the design and spirit of this entire action. And just be- 
cause the sphere of the Church lies in morals and matters of 
conscience, all the arguments on this subject drawn from the 
actual exercise of authority over Southern men by the South- 
ern Confederacy, are nothing to the purpose. It is claimed 
that the Church must recognize a de facto government. But 
this is far from being so, absolutely and without regard ta 
the nature and character of the government. The Church 
should teach men, and especially should tell her own members 
in an hour of trial, that more is required to change a man's 
alleo-iance, than the mere power over his person and his pro- 



15 

perty. Men may be prisoners of war in the hands of their 
enemies; they may be captives in a robber's cave or a pirate's 
vessel; they may fall into the hands of a mob or a feeble in- 
surrection, and in all these cases they may be subject to pow- 
ers which it would be madness to resist. Under such au- 
thority, men may be obliged to submission and obedience, but 
they do not ovv^e loyalty. It is one thing to be subject for 
wrath — it may be quite another to be subject for conscience 
sake. The Church of God would not put arms into a mar- 
tyr's hands, but she would aid him to maintain his principles 
the hour of sternest trial ; and we believe that many a loyal 
conscience in the South was strengthened by the affirmation 
of the Assembly's loyalty. To i-esist existing authority, is 
not to resist lawful authority, and this especially when the 
existing authority has itself had but a brief existence, has 
risen upon resistance to authority long reverenced as legiti- 
mate, and is justified by no oppression felt by the loyal sub- 
ject. Such a government may bind the limbs, confiscate the 
property, or command the unwilling service. Let religion 
and the Church speak just here, as they should, to say it can- 
not bind the conscience. 

So far are we from agreeing with these protestants when 
they declare this action of the Assembly to be a departure 
from our old paths, we allege that their views tend to a dan- 
gerous form of high church peculiarities, foreign to the dis- 
tinctive spirit of Presbyterianism, and noAV attenpting its en- 
croachments upon us to the signal marring of our spiritual 
prosperity. Is it not significant, as indicating what true 
Presbyterianism is, that among the many Presbyterian bodies 
of this land — and, as we have said, including our own inferior 
judicatories — the Old School General Assembly alone has need 
to vindicate its jurisdiction in this case ? Should it not be 
thought that one passage from our own Confession of Faith is 
decisive of the question ? "They who, upon pretence cf 
christian liberty, do practice any sin, ^ * do thereby de- 
stroy the end of christian liberty." "And because the pow- 
ers which God hath ordained, and the liberty which Christ 



16 

hath purchased, are not intended by God to destroy, but mu- 
tually to uphold and preserve one another ; they who, upon 
the pretence of christian liberty, shall oppose any lawful 
power or the lawful exercise of it, whether it be civil or eccle- 
siastical, resist the ordinance of God." (Conf. Faith, ch. xx: 
§ 3 and 4.) God alone is Lord of the conscience; but the 
pretence of either christian or civil liberty is no bar to the in- 
vestigation of offences. Nor can the views of the protestants 
be consistently carried out without the utter destruction of all 
that is orderly and distinctive in the Presbyterian Church. 
It is true, in one sense, that "the Church has no right to make 
anything a condition of christian or ministerial fellowship 
which is not enjoined or required in the Scriptures and the 
standards of the Church ;" but it is not Presbyterianism to 
make our terms of communion so wide as to admit every man 
who recognizes the authority of the Scriptures; every man 
whose christian character we presume not to deny ; nor even 
every man who can subscribe to our doctrinal standards. 
Without now discussing the relative importance of doctrine 
and duty, we affirm that "'truth is in order to godliness ;" 
that the consciences of christian men may as rightly be of- 
fended at immorality as at heresy; and that a Church which 
so clearly defines its doctrinal position and stands separate 
from so many conscientious christians in other communions, 
need not wonder that thousands of her members revolt at the 
thought of sitting down at the Lord's table in unbroken 
christian fellowship with men who plead for the perpetuity of 
slavery, who are among the chief abettors of treason, and 
whose hands, in a warfare unjustifiable and wicked, both as 
to its means and its ends, are dyed in the blood of their 
brethren. 

To these things we may add that a position of neutrality, 
deliberately taken, seemed as really a decision of the ques- 
tion as that the Assembly made. This made the adoption of 
any other paper than the one first offered to the Assembly so 
undesirable. This, in part, accounts for the change in the 
votes. Many persons, induced partly by policy, partly by 



17 

the usual position of extreme conservatism held by our 
Church, partly by the Assembly's practice which rarely de- 
cides questions in thesi,* voted at first to do nothing ; but 
when they were disposed to do anything, they could stop no- 
where short of what the Assembly did. We cannot consent 
to the statements so widely made, that outside pressure forced 
the Assembly's action. Men accustomed to watch closely the 
Assembly's doings will declare that rarely has that body 
known efforts more strenuous, more unjustifiable or more per- 
sistent to prevent any loyal expression. Weeks before the 
Assembly met the key note was struck by influential fingers 
"that the Assembly would do only the usual routine of busi- 
ness ;" and though of course this was without authority, 
it was urged as a pledge that tlwj Presbyteries expected the 
Assembly's silence, and had its influence upon the earliest 
voting. And though in a time of so much excitement we 
wonder not that the members were earnest on their respective 
sides; and wc care not, as we could, to cast buck the charge 
of undue pressure, we cannot but think that such a com- 
plaint comes with the worst possible grace from men who first 
attempted, and in the most discourteous manner, to gag dis- 
cussion; Avho first introduced telegraphic interference from 
Cabinet officers; who arrayed the influence of prominent min- 
isters, not members of the house, against the Assembly's ac- 
tion ; whose very papers, offered for adoption, were prepared 
by such hands; whose sentiments were reiterated around the 
social board in the very hospitalities the Assembly enjoyed; 
and whose threatenings of the division of the Church, in con- 
sequence of this action, were as loud and as long as any 
threats against it. We affirm that a deliberate neutrality was 
impossible. The Assembly took the right ground ; or should 
have taken none; and the very language of the protest con- 
fesses this. The protestants found it impossible to speak and 

* Although the General Assembly usually avoi.is decisions in thesi, yet its 
testimonies are generally of this nature ; and precedents can easily be found 
of such business originating with the Assembly. The famous action of 181S, 
on the subject of slavery, originated in that Assembly. (See Gen. Assemblv 
Minutes, pp. 688, 691. 



18 

be neutral. They tterefore decide that it would be treason* 
able for Southern christians to support the Federal Govern- 
ment. They declare that the Assembly forces them (i. e., 
Southern Presbyterians) to choose between allegiance to their 
States and allegiance to the Church. If they mean all this 
language implies, they should have found fault with the As- 
sembly, not for meddling with this question, but for making 
a decision the reverse of right. So then the answer to the 
protest might have gone a step further. "The protestants 
would have us recognize" not only "as good Presbyterians" 
but as truly loyal to their States, "men whom our own Gov- 
ernment, with the approval of Christendom, may soon execute 
as traitors." 

But while we thus vindicate the province of the Church of 
God to settle questions of moral duty, even though they do 
concern the civil authority ; while we affirm the entire propri- 
ety of the Assembly's action, even though it touches conflict- 
ing claims of allegiance, we yet distinctly deny that this is 
truly the nature of the present crisis. State rights have been 
abundantly spoken of; they have been alleged as the founda- 
tion of secession ordinances; and yet in no just sense is the 
present conflict between the separate Southern States and the 
National Government, It is a rebellion to all intents and in 
every movement ; the Assembly had every means of knowing 
this ; almost every member upon the floor conceded this as 
the true view of the case ; and if ever rebellion should be re- 
proved by the Church, an utterance was timely then. 

The proof lies partly in these things : 

1st. It is an important thought, which has become familiar 
in these discussions, that with the single exception of Texas, 
no one of the Southern States ever has had a sovereign and 
independent existence. They have laws and constitutions ; 
but these have co-existed with a Federal Constitution made 
by express words the Supreme law of the land ; and a city by 
its laws and officers may as well rise against a State as a State 
asiainst the nation. No one of the States ever had an exist- 
ence apart from the Union; no one ever levied war, con- 



19 

eluded peace, contracted alliances, established co.nmerce, coin- 
ed money, or did any of the peculiar acts of independent 
States; no one has a single port of entry under all their laws 
upon 2,000 miles of sea coast; and no one can give a pass- 
port to a single citizen going abroad. Allegiance may be due 
to such States from their citizens, as a city may demand obe- 
dience to its municipal authorities; but such States are not 
competent to claim the loyalty of the people in conflict with 
the National rule. 

2d. Even apart from this statement, it is not true that the 
States, as States, have decided the leave the Union. Every 
Christian citizen, subject for conscience sake, may be expect- 
ed to inquire whether his State has indeed bidden him re- 
nounce the National Government. Not a single State has 
properly decided this question. The leaders of the rebellion 
have not ventured to appeal to the free election of the peo- 
ple; where elections have been held, no fair decision has been 
allowed; and every truly loyal heart should refuse such lead- 
ers and be sustained in that refusal by loyal men everywhere. 
Could the National Government at this hour recognize as cor- 
rect the abstract doctrine of secession, the fact could not still 
be recognized. No secession ordinance has been fairly sub- 
mitted to the people of any State ; no loyal citizen has any 
right to decide that his State government and the National 
Government are in conflict; the disloyal States are acting 
in violation of their own constitutions, and the National Gov- 
ernment directly according to the Constitution; and the fair 
presumption is, that thousands of loyal men, now forced to si- 
lence and subjection by unconstitutional powers, are expect- 
ing the National Government, as speedily as possible, to pro- 
tect them and their interests against the lawless politicians 
who control the insurrection. The separate States have never 
told their citizens by any lawful voice to stand aside from the 
Union. 

3d. The conflict is not now, and has not been, between 
those States and the General Government. If even we allow 
that those who claim the control of affairs in each seceding 



20 

Ftate, are the State, we point to the significant and important 
fact, that not a single State thus separated by ordinance from 
K]\e Union, has made any attempt to exist as a sovereign State. 
The leaders, in every case, without consulting the people, of- 
ten before the mockery of a seceding ordinance, hare made 
application to a new government, wiiieh bears no marks of an 
independent and sovereign existence, save the power to levy 
an unconcluded war*. How can we'treat those States as sov- 
ereign, or speak of their authority conflicting with that which 
has been sovereign over us all our lives, when they take no 
step as sovereign States? No State has sought separate al- 
liances, or separate recognition abroad ; no State has declared 
war against the United States ; and the National Government 
now is not at war with Virginia, or South Carolina, or Louis- 
iana. When a question of etiquette arose for the exchange of 
prisoners, it was not demanded that we should recognize State 
authorities, but the so-called Confederate authorities. The 
m.en now in arms in the Southern part of this land, have trans- 
ferred their allegiance from the national government to 
another government never known before ; that new govern- 
ment seeks the position of independence it unquestionably 
never held; that government, with a new name, a new flagj 
a new constitution, and new ofiicers, and a place to win among 
the nations of the earth, is in array against the constitution 
and laws that our fathers established; and that is not a true 
statement, which declares that this is a conflict between each 
man's own State and the Union. 

So, 4th, The attempts made to force other States into the 
Southern Confederacy, clearly prove that in no case has the 
conflict of authority been between the States and the General 
Government. Witness the abundant preparations made to 
support the Southern Confederacy before the separate States 
Lad gone through even the forms of secession ordinances ; 
witness the attempts to interfere with States that have not 
passed any such ordinances; above all, see that no respect is 
paid to State rights, when they stand opposed to the wishes 
of the Southern schemists. No sooner have the people of 



21 

Kentucky decided, in the most triumphant manner, to remain 
with the Union, and the Legislature, chosen at such a crisis, 
and directly representing the people, have sustained this de- 
cision by overwhelming majorities, than the true standing of 
the South toward State rights and State authorities is imme- 
diately made known. An array General, acting under a Ken- 
tucky commission until the voice of Kentucky is heard, im- 
mediately produces another commission from the so-called 
Confederate government, that overrides the authority of the 
State, declares that " the Legislature has been faithless to the 
will of the people ;" and himself a son of Kentucky, draws his 
sword both against his native State and nation ; and another 
General in the service of the same poAver, and himself from 
another State, announces, as his excuse for invading Ken- 
tucky, that the "South claims her territory and will not con- 
sent to give it up." The war is not between the States and 
the Nation, nor the conflicting claims of allegiance between 
the separate States and the General Government. The South- 
ern people themselves show that a new and half-erected power 
is attempting to break down the only supreme government 
to which the people of the United States owe their allegiance. 
There seems no just reason, then, why Ave should not de- 
cide upon a case like this. If ever a church tribunal should 
declare the guilt of disloyalty and rebellion beyond the mere 
abstract crime, the General Assembly was cognizant of facts 
enough to speak plainly in this particular instance. The same 
reasons which could justify any minister of the gospel to 
urge loyalty from the pulpit or to declare from the press that 
the Southern rebellion Avas unjustifiable, Avicked, and destruc- 
tive to high interests both in the State and in the Church, 
would justify him in so declaring as a member of a Church 
court. The same Bible teaches me the principles I am to be- 
lieve as a christian, preach as a minister, and maintain in the 
actings of any Church court ; nor, as to principle, dare I say 
that in the pulpit which it would be unrighteous to declare in 
the acts of the General Assembly. And the whole aspect of 
things, before and since the Assembly's sessions, justifies that 



22 

action. No such reasons exist for the rebellion of the South- 
ern States as justify their acts of civil war; there are no 
proofs of oppression on the part of the General Government; 
with the Southern institutions no governmental interference 
has been made ; indeed a government chiefly administered by 
themselves could not possibly be hostile to the South ; and 
even the incoming administration could have been hindered 
and hampered in every unfavorable movement, by Southern 
influence and Southern votes, if constitutional means had 
been used in the Union. Moreover the position of the North 
and the actings of both parties make this as clear a case of 
rebellion as history records. We dare not admit the doctrine 
of peaceable secession if we expect a national existence 
at all; and forcible disunion is but the beginning of a strife 
whose end our children will not see. 

And, as the struggle has been forced upon the Nation, so 
every step, on our part, has been marked with a forbearance 
which seemed sometimes scarcely to deserve the name of a 
self-defence. Aggressions began Avith them ; the shedding of 
blood began with them ; they have been defiant from the be- 
ginning and everywhere, not less in their pulpits and church 
judicatories, than in their Legislatures and in their armies, in 
striking contrast with the conciliatory policy of Church and 
State, of press and pulpit in the North. We have allowed 
them to erect their fortifications around ours for their destruc- 
tion ; we have left our garrisons to feebleness and starvation 
rather than give them offence ; we have released prisoners ta- 
ken with arms in their hands upon any show of allegiance ; 
we have surrendered their escaped slaves and allowed them to 
be carried back to work in the trenches against us ; we have 
kept up our mail routes and given them the advantages of the 
Government to the extreme of indulgence ; we have permitted 
commerce to carry supplies of provisions, and, until a very 
recent period, of arms and iimmunition ; and in our tenderness 
not to trample upon any alleged right, we have held back Uni- 
ted States troops from United States soil ; and while Seces- 
sionists perfected their schemes upon ground claimed as neu- 



2^ 

tral, the Government has waited invitations to advance where 
it has always had the right to go. Yet as the Government 
has been forbearing, the rebellion has been not only unpro- 
voked in its nnture, but especially wicked and immoral in its 
measures. No righteous undertaking ever demanded the de- 
ceit and falsehood and fraud that have characterized this cause 
from the beginning until now. The election of the present 
Chief Magistrate was but a pretext to hurry on a treasonable 
plot which his defeat could only have delayed. And when 
we consider that men high in office, and hitherto claiming an 
honorable reputation, have not hesitated to use their official 
stations to betray the Government ; to violate their solemn 
oaths as officers ; to transfer large amounts of property with 
which they are entrusted to hostile hands ; and to maintain 
deceitful professions of loyally for months while secretly plot- 
ting to destroy the Government; when we remember the man- 
ner in w^hich this warfare has been carried on, by privateers 
sailing under foreign flags, by firing upon pickets, by poison- 
ing food and fountains, and by waylaying railroad trains and 
causing disastrous catastrophes ; when, moreover, we are ex- 
plicitly told what is the great object of the new Confederacy ; 
when a prominent Presbyterian periodical assures us that "the 
Presbyterians of the South, in a certain sense, love slavery as 
truly as they love liberty ;"* and a prominent Presbyterian pul- 
pit claims for the South a Divine mission to perpetuate slave- 
ry; and a high official declares that slavery, avowedly unsup- 
ported under the old Constitution, is "the corner stone of the 
new republic ;" we hardly know what disloyalty the church of 
God ever dares condemn, if she may not speak boldly at 
such a time as this. 

Fathers and brethren of this venerable Synod! it is not for 
the Church of God to choose for herself the scenes throuo-h 
which she must pass; the discussions which the times may 
force upon her ; or the results that are to follow the duties 
we discharge. But God, who orders our lot in times of sad- 

* Southern Presb. Rev. Vol. 14, 282. 



24 

ness and trouble, means not that we should sit down either 
indifferent or idle. If we were permitted our choice, how 
changed would be this day our land and the Church. The 
pulpits of Presbyterian churches in the South at no distant 
day in the past were one with us, alike in Christian doctrine 
and in the feelings of a loyal patriotism. Without adverting 
now to the gradual changes running backwards for a genera- 
tion, how rapid and apparently how calamitous the changes 
that have occurred since we last met in Synod ! Even then 
indeed we had our fears, as the dark storm gathered upon 
the distant horizon : but our unpractised eyes did not discern, 
that like the storms of the Gulf of Mexico, a little cloud be- 
tokened a rapid and destructive hurricane. May the likeness 
be here also : that tropical storms of the greatest violence 
are soonest over ! Though not ignorant of changing views 
in the South, we could not then think that Southern pul- 
pits would boldly and openly proclaim the rightfulness and 
perpetuity of slavery : that Southern judicatories would pro- 
claim disloyalty ; that ministers of the Gospel would draw the 
sword of war and tread the field of strife. As little did we 
dream that our National and Ecclesiastical prosperity should 
be so suddenly checked : our property diverted from the chan- 
nels of peace and benevolence : and our people mustered for 
the battle. Forced to accept all these facts as they rise be- 
fore us, let us on the one hand gird ourselves for the duties 
they lay upon us, and on the other let us hold fast the sup- 
ports and consolations which the faith of Christ imparts. Let 
us speak of duty in two respects: 

1st. Let us observe the times. Let us meet the issue of 
all questions, whether in the Church as christians, or in the 
State as citizens : in the pulpii as ministers, in the judicatory 
as teaching or ruling elders ; by the voice and by the press, 
in the fear of God and undeterred by the opposition of those 
whose standing we respect, but whose teachings we cannot 
receive. Let us keep in mind that God has given no nobler 
heritage to any people than that which our fathers have hand- 
ed down to us : and let us not stand by with our hands either 



25 

folded in indiiference, or tied fast by craven cowardice, bj 
politic expediency, or by a morbid sensitiveness to touch 
upon civil matters ; and allow these inestimable priv- 
ileges to be wrested from our feeble grasp. How can 
we answer . to our country, answer to the world, answer 
to posterity, answer to God, if we stand not in our lot, 
and do all in our power to maintain unbroken our glorious 
union, and the covenants of our fathers? We choose not 
war. We delight not in war. We mourn our every field of 
conflict. We weep over every fallen soldier, and this, indeed, 
though he has fallen as a traitor in arms against the govern- 
ment. Yet we vindicate a war so forced upon us — so vital to 
the upholding of this government; so needful for the good of 
posterity. We pray for our interests, civil and military ; we 
pray for the success of our arms on every field of strife ; 
we wish wisdom in our counsels, and confusion to every scheme 
of treason ; and we coulcf/ not vindicate such pleadings and 
actings of patriotism, if conscience and the Bible did not bid 
us do the like in the judicatories of the Church. 

But as to duty, 2d, let us ever remember that these are not 
the chief duties of the Christian Ministry. Let us ever keep 
in mind that our chief calling is to instruct men in spiritual 
things — to aim at saving souls — and all other things with us 
should be subordinate to the great aim. While then, we are 
decided and outspoken in supporting the government of the 
land, while we obey the Apostle's injunction and put the peo- 
ple in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, while 
in this we are but obeying God, there is no need for the fre- 
quent discussion of such themes in the pulpit* It is our wis- 
dom to speak seldom of themes not directly religious. And, 
in these times of high excitement, when people read so much 
all the week, they ought to find quiet in the sanctuary upon the 
Sabbath, and be led away from the cares of this Avorld, to thoughts 
of another. If neither they nor we can or should dismiss our anx- 
ieties for our beloved land upon the Sabbath, let them find con- 
stant expression rather with the voice of prayer than of pulpit 
instruction ; and thus even in these times let God's day be the 



26 

day of rest. The clear, calm, decided expression of our duvf '-^ 
in these matters is neither uncalled for, nor unnecessary, nor/ 
uninfluential in a crisis like this ; but as we are surrounded 
by dying sinners, as the unavoidable excitements of the times 
turn men more than usually away from thoughts of personal 
salvation, as religion suffers in almost every possible way, and 
as none will help if the ministers of Christ desert their posts, 
let us be more diligent than ever to teach the spiritual things 
of the kingdom, more zealous than ever to rescue souls from 
increasing dangers, more watchful than ever for the due . and 
prudent discharge of every obligation, and more prayerful 
than ever in this season when our land and our churches, our 
people and our own souls do so much need the Divine guidance 
and protection and blessing. 

And this then for Christian consolation is our final thought ; 
that we may commit all our perplexities and sorrows to God. 
This dark and violent storm has not arisen by chance. 

" The God that rules on high, 

And thunders when he please, 
That rides upon the stormy sky, 

And manages the seas. 
This awful God is ours 1" 

Through darkness to light, many a time has he led his 
Church. We are upon the lake, tossed by the waves, and 
strivino- against the tempest, and we wonder why he has sent 
us forth; but on the mountain above, Jesus prays for his dis- 
ciples in the ship, and in the fourth watch he will walk the 
stormy billows and calm their rage to peace. God rules these 
agitations. We know not their beneficial purposes in his 
Providence ; but we know that he does all things well. De- 
serving his chastisements we bow beneath his rod; but know- 
ing his mercy and wisdom, we hope that good for this entire 
nation, and blessings for the world, will result from these 
troubles. It is not for man to discern what form the bless- 
no- will take; but christians may believe "and pray that God 
designs blessings to his Church, in conception and measure 
aboVe our highest thoughtB. - 

L5 019 H 



■y 



